Look Now: Sporty Hair

Ready, set, hike! This season hair got sporty, in ponytails and styles with slicked-back texture. But you won't see these looks at the gym—our favorite versions have a cool feel and are polished enough to wear with an evening gown.

Typically reserved for the tennis court, visors made their way onto the catwalk at Marc by Marc Jacobs, topping off the athletic style that hairstylist Guido created. Tired of the plain old ponytail, Guido made it more intricate: Holding it straight up, he clipped the middle of the tail right to the back of the head. Then he let it fall over the clip and secured it in place with another silver barrette about one inch from the end, leaving a small tail at the nape of the neck. Finally, he added gloss just to the front of the hair, leaving the loop matte and fluffy. "It's a simple look, but it has a little more to it than just a plain old knot," he said.

For the look at BCBG Max Azria, hairstylist Neil Moodie wanted a sporty, but not severe, feel. "It's tough, but then it also becomes soft in the same look, which I really like," he said. For his inspiration, he looked at Bond girl Barbara Bachs, and the scene in The Spy Who Loved Me where she emerges from the ocean and runs her hands through her hair. "It's not superslick," he said. "There's a looseness to it, but it's still contained." Moodie didn't have salt water on hand to create the surfer look, so instead he used a thickening hair spray before blow-drying it with a diffuser attachment. For the ocean-drenched effect, he applied Bumble and Bumble Gel in sections to the top of the hair just below the crown, combing it all back with a wide-tooth comb. He curled the ends into soft, natural-looking waves and set the whole look with Bumble and Bumble Classic Hairspray.

Hairstylist Orlando Pita also went for a just-out-of-the-pool look at Giambattista Valli. The sport inspiration at the show? Globe-trotting. "She's a nomad—she goes from her boat into the ocean, to a party, back to her boat, off to another island—she's totally carefree," Pita said. "She has this kind of dry, beachy texture in her hair, and then she dips her hands in the water and scrapes her hair back—that's why it's wet in the front and dry in the back." Pita curled the back first to give the hair some bend, then mattified it with mousse and hair spray while lacquering the top with gel. Finally, he raked back the hair with a wide-tooth comb so it looked as if it had been done by hand.

At Rag & Bone, Guido used a single product to achieve the breezy, natural-looking waves. He prepped the hair with Redken Satinwear 02 Ultimate Blow-Dry Lotion to protect it from the heat, then did a messy blow-dry, finishing with a disheveled middle part. The sporty element came courtesy of the Velcro bands secured around each model's neck, which Guido tucked the hair into so that they looked like cyclists. Retro sunglasses added the finishing touch to a look that easily could have been seen at the Tour de France.

Ponytails often remind us of the gym, but the athletic reference at Donna Karan cropped up in a more subversive manner. "It's meant to look like a horse's tail and a whip at the same time," said hairstylist Eugene Souleiman, who mixed preppy equestrian style with S&M dominatrix in one slicked-back, severe ponytail. Souleiman started by gathering the hair tightly at back of the head in the center and securing with an elastic, heavily misting the crown with Wella Stay Firm Finishing Spray—a product he described as "liquid concrete." Next, he painted shine serum all over the head with a paintbrush, so that the top of the hair looked "dripping wet" and also evoked the look and feel of plastic. For the tail, extensions were added, a piece of two-inch black mesh was wrapped around the base (so that it stuck straight out and looked like a riding crop), and the ends were chopped straight across. "This way it will swing back and forth like a horse's tail when they come down the runway," Souleiman said. "I think it's unexpected, actually, because looking at the front of the hair, someone might expect to see a chignon when the models turn around." Surprise!

National Velvet, the 1944 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor as a young equestrian, inspired the Ruffian collection—as well as the hair, which was a superthick, chunky braid at the back of the head. Shiny and smoothed down in front, Moodie added extensions to create the shoulder-blade-grazing braid that easily could have poked out of a riding helmet.

Backstage at Proenza Schouler, hairstylist Paul Hanlon rattled off a long list of references for the style he created for the show. "It's a bit '50s, but not retro, so it still has that Proenza Schouler vibe," he said. "We looked at pictures of Elvis and Richard Avedon as well as Teddy Boys, and then referenced the aquatic skins used in many of the clothes by adding a wetness to the front of the hair." But he didn't stop there: "There's also an intern that works at Proenza Schouler who has dreads, and they liked how that looked as well." Put all that together, and the overall look could be described as messy yet still feminine and chic with the difference in the texture between the back and the front of the hair. "The wet hair in the front also makes it a bit sporty," Hanlon said. We're not sure which sport would suit a look like this, but either way, you can't deny that it's too cool for school.